At the time this guide was published, Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g supported the following minimum Oracle database versions. As a result, before you upgrade your Oracle Application Server 10g environment to Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g, you must first upgrade your Oracle database to one of these versions:

When you upgrade your Oracle database to a supported version for Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g, note that if you are using Oracle Portal, then you must be sure that the Oracle Text database option is installed and configured as part of the database upgrade process.

Specifically:

If you are upgrading to Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.4), then you must install the Oracle Text option from the Oracle Database Companion CD-ROM after you install 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.1) and before you apply the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.4) patch set.

For more information, refer to the Oracle Database 10g installation documentation.

If you are upgrading to Oracle Database 11g (11.1.0.7), then you must install Oracle Text from the Oracle Database Example CD-ROM after you install Oracle Database 11g (11.1.0.1) and before you apply the Oracle Database 11g (11.1.0.7) patch set.

For more information, refer to the Oracle Database 11g installation documentation.

For complete instructions for upgrading to the latest version of Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2), refer to the Oracle Database Upgrade Guide in the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) documentation library on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN):

http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/database10gR2.html

In particular, refer to the section, "Determine the Upgrade Path to the New Oracle Database 10g Release" in the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.4) Oracle Database Upgrade Guide for specific information about upgrading from any supported Oracle Database version.

For the purposes of this guide, Figure 5-1 provides a summary of the steps you will likely have to take to upgrade to Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.4).

This example is designed to serve as an example only. Refer to the database documentation for specific instructions.

5.3.3.1 Documentation Resources When Upgrading to Oracle Database 11g

To upgrade your 10g Release 2 (10.1.2) or 10g (10.1.4) seed database to Oracle Database 11g, use the following resources:

The Oracle Database installation guide for your platform and the Oracle Database Upgrade Guide, which are available in the Oracle Database 11g documentation library on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN):

In particular, refer to the section, "Determine the Upgrade Path" in the Oracle Database 11g (11.1) Oracle Database Upgrade Guide for specific information about upgrading from any supported Oracle Database version.

As you begin the upgrade process, it is important to know how your OracleAS Metadata Repository was installed into your database. Specifically, consider the following to determine the type of OracleAS Metadata Repository database you are upgrading. Each type of OracleAS Metadata Repository database is upgraded differently:

If you used the Oracle Application Server installation procedure to create a new database for the OracleAS Metadata Repository, refer to the information in this section for information about upgrading the seed database to one supported by Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g.

This type of database is referred to as a seed database, because the database was created automatically by the Oracle Application Server installation procedure specifically for hosting the OracleAS Metadata Repository.

If you created the seed database with 10g Release 2 (10.1.2), then the database is likely an Oracle Database 10g (10.1.0.4) database. If you created the database with 10g (10.1.4), then the database is likely an Oracle Database 10g (10.1.0.5) database.

This type of OracleAS Metadata Repository database is referred to as an OracleAS RepCA database, because you used OracleAS RepCA to install the repository in an existing database that you installed and configured yourself.

The Oracle Database installation guide for your platform and the Oracle Database Upgrade Guide, which are available in the Oracle Database 10g documentation library on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN):

By default, after you upgrade your database, the datafiles, control files, and log files associated with the database remain in their original location. For example, if you previously used Oracle Application Server 10g installer to upgrade a Metadata Repository seed database, the datafiles for the Metadata Repository database remain in the source Oracle home.

As a result, Oracle recommends that if you have not done so already, you relocate these files as a safeguard against inadvertently deleting them (for example, by deleting or decommissioning the entire source Oracle home directory tree). In addition, there may be performance benefits to moving the database files outside of the source Oracle home.

For more information, refer to "Renaming and Relocating Datafiles" in the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide. The documentation library for your version of the Oracle Database can be found on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN):

Potential interoperability and upgrade issues can be avoided by making sure you have applied the latest Oracle Application Server 10g patch sets, and that you have reviewed the list of recommended patches that are designed to help you avoid any problems during upgrade.